In The Inferno, by Dante, the main character
operates on several levels. Dante serves as a
Christian hero because he undergoes trials and
tribulations in his search to find the souls true path
in life. Dante also portrays himself as everyman. He
does this by showing that he also suffers from sin.
In The Inferno, hell is in a spiral shape, and is
divided up by the seriousness of the sin committed.
The sinners are stuck in their location in hell where
there punishment fit the crime that they committed.
At the top of hell is where what Dante considered the
least sinful people belonged. This is the home of the
people who suffered from lust, and gluttony. The sins
got worse going down until the very bottom was reached.
In the very bottom of hell were the traitors, and
people who cheated other people. According to Dante,
these were the very worst people in hell. It seems
that every sinner in hell tries to misrepresent the
truth to rationalize away their sin.
In The Inferno, Dante comes across several people
that are known public figures, and/or people that Dante
knew on earth. Among these is Brunetto Latini who
Dante admires and is shocked to find him there.
Another person that Dante comes across in The Inferno
is Francesca da Rimini, who Dante realizes he would
have had the same fate. Dante also runs into Ulysses
of which who led people to death, and has a flaming
tongue. Vanni Fucci is another person that Dante runs
into in hell. Vanni Fucci is there for robbing a
church, and now the serpents have attacked him.
Dante's goal in his writing is that he wants to
write the defining work for the culture that he lives
in. He writes, "our lives journey," so the rest of
humanity can link his experiences to his own.

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...Virgil
Virgil came to be regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid can be considered a national epic of Rome and has been extremely popular from its publication to the present day.
Virgil- Beatrice sends Virgil to Earth to retrieve Dante and act as his guide through Hell and Purgatory. Since the poet Virgil lived before Christianity, he dwells in Limbo (Ante-Inferno) with other righteous non-Christians. As author, Dante chooses the character Virgil to act as his guide because he admired Virgil's work above all other poets and because Virgil had written of a similar journey through the underworld. Thus, Virgil's character knows the way through Hell and can act as Dante's knowledgeable guide while he struggles alongside Dante when they enter Purgatory together for the first time. As a spirit, Virgil suffers no physical pain and moves through Hell and Purgatory without effort. However, he must make arrangements for Dante to cross chasms, rivers, and walls because Dante retains his physical form. Dante's physical presence gives clues, such as casting a shadow and displacing rocks, that indicate to the spirits that Dante is still alive. The fact that Dante is alive angers many of the spirits, especially the guardians of the underworld, so Virgil also serves as Dante's protector as he warns Dante's would-be foes that their journey was predestined in Heaven.
Virgil as a Teacher
Although Virgil’s official job title is a "guide" for Dante, we all...

...The Inferno is a work full of imagery that describes the horrors of hell through the words of the author. What does Dante gain by going through Hell? What does Dante gain by all of this by taking himself through such an experience? I believe there are three elements of life that Dante realizes through his time in Inferno. Throughout the book I feel the three elements Dante learns of are confidence, clarification of his faith, and a release from his own personal hell of isolation.
In the beginning, we see Dante as a somewhat scared and untrusting individual. He questions his worthiness and tenacity several times. As Virgil leads Dante though hell, Dante becomes less frightened and more trusting of his leader. He never seems to become synthesized to the horrors of hell. He becomes more confident and less startled but is still shocked with his experience. Dante allows himself to feel the emotions of the inhabitants of hell without accepting their behavior. This final point takes his confidence to a higher level. The faith of our character seems to be fading in the first canto. He has to trust in his God and does not look to his God for support during the appearance of the three beasts. On the appearance of Virgil, Dante questions why the mother of God would find him worthy of a tour through hell. He claims he is not worthy of such an honor and gains more faith by allowing himself to see how his God has organized the punishments of hell....

...Dante's use of allegory in the Inferno greatly varies from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in purpose, symbolism, characters and mentors, and in attitude toward the world. An analysis of each of these elements in both allegories will provide an interesting comparison. Dante uses allegory to relate the sinner's punishment to his sin, while Plato uses allegory to discuss ignorance and knowledge. Dante's Inferno describes the descent through Hell from the upper level of the opportunists to the most evil, the treacherous, on the lowest level. His allegorical poem describes a hierarchy of evil. Conversely, Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" describes the ascent from ignorance to knowledge, as one prisoner is freed to make his way up towards the opening of the cave and experiences sunlight, the unavoidable truth. Symbolism is an essential element of both works. In Plato's allegory symbols are used to represent truth, ignorance, society and the fear of change. Truth is represented by the sun, while ignorance is represented by the cave, its limited vision and darkness within. The prisoners represent ignorant members of society who are content to believe that what they see is all that exists. Fear of change is represented by the prisoners angry reaction towards the freed, enlightened prisoner. Dante's Inferno is a detailed description of sin and its relationship to degrees of punishment. As stated in the text, "...for the face was...

...decision to reject the idea of an afterlife, indulging every want in life because they were un-aware of any repercussions after they died. The next circle is filled with those that were consciously violent towards God’s creations or God himself. The eighth circle contains those who broke bonds of trust between themselves and acquaintances becoming more serious as they descend. Finally are those treacherous to those that they are closest to. This hits home with Dante being versed in the Bible because Judas Iscariot was the ultimate sinner in the Bible and he is condemned as the worst in hell, being in the ninth circle with those who betrayed benefactors. Dante’s Inferno is a just conception of hell based in biblical facts and the philosophy of the age.
Justice is to be guided by truth, reason and fairness. The Inferno is the greatest human conceived embodiment of justice in hell due to its base in Biblical facts and personal experiences having little impact on the order or basis of hell. The first five circles of hell have a general theme of incontinence. The balance in man requires self-control, but because of their abuse of self-control in life, they are forced to be guided by their emotions. The heretics reside in tombs for eternity; an exact representation of what they thought would happen at death, so justly they are trapped in their idea of their afterlife. Next is the descent into a lower, more despicable hell: sins of malice....

...﻿Jose E EspadaOrtiz
Hist 101 A/ Mr. David Purvis
17 April 2013
Dante’s Inferno
Dante’s Inferno, originally written in Italian, is a narrative poem that opens on the evening of Good Friday in 1300. The poem takes you on a journey that documents Dante’s trip through the underworld, also known as hell to Heaven. During the poem Dante is guided by Virgil, who is the ghost of the great Roman poet, through the gates of hell then up to Heaven where he will be united with his love Beatrice.
The poem begins with Dante traveling through the dark wood when he suddenly lost his way, and begins to become filled with fear while roaming through the dark forest. However there is a ray of hope as the sun shines down from above illuminating a mountain. Dante starts to travel up to the mountaintop where he is then met by three beasts that were blocking his path. The three beasts were a lion, a leopard, and she-wolf. Each of these beasts seems to symbolize one of the seven deadly sins that were inspired by the Christians of the medieval time period. The lion symbolized pride, the leopard symbolized lust and the she-wolf symbolized greed.
Being terrified Dante turns back into the dark wood where he is met by Virgil. This is where his journey would begin through the gates of hell. However, in the beginning Dante feels nervous and unworthy as he states, “But why should I go there? Who allows it? /I am not Aeneas, nor am I Paul. /Neither I nor any think me fit...

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“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” (Canto I). These opening words of the Italian Dante Alighieri’s Inferno set a scene of a man, Dante, lost in his own God-given life path. From here on, Dante embarks on a journey of staggering significance: he is granted a tour of Hell. Dante records this expedition in the Inferno, but unfortunately, the piece of literature is not entirely factual. Dante creates this story to show his personal ideas of Hell. However, he does not set aside his own biased view on the world to write an accurate schema of Hell. He holds grudges against those who do not worship Catholicism, those who are not Italian or do not support Italy, and really anyone who did not share similar opinions as his. Dante’s system of sin and corresponding punishment, while literarily brilliant, is much too biased to be of true religious significance.
An example of Dante’s incredibly blatant political bias is Cleopatra and Dido’s placements in Hell. The two women are both condemned to an eternity in Level Two: Lust. Here, “...the infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine; whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.” (Dante Canto V). This punishment seems fit for overtly sexual beings. Unfortunately, Cleopatra and Dido are not two of those beings, per se. It is true that they both were quite lustful and lived...

...The thirteenth canto of Dante’s The Inferno clearly depicts several of the different themes that can be seen throughout the poem. Some of these themes are the idea of contrapasso, or the notion that the punishment dealt fits the crime committed, the portrayal of Hell as being devoid of hope, and the importance of fame. The images and language Dante uses to describe his experiences in the middle ring of the seventh circle of Hell, which houses the suicides, provide the reader with the feeling of despair and hopelessness present throughout the text, while also serving to show the idea of contrapasso and the underlying importance of fame.
The seventh ring of Hell is occupied by the souls of people who took their own lives. Their punishment is that they become trees and shrubs on which the harpies feed. As the harpies tear their leaves and branches, the souls suffer pain and bleed. But on the other hand, they cannot speak unless they shed blood. The Harpies “give pain and to that pain a mouth” (101-102). Dante, when seeing this for the first time, describes it “As a green log, burning at one end, that blisters and hisses at the other, with the rush of sap and air, so from the broken splinter oozed blood and words together” (40-44). The reader learns from the soul of Pier della Vigna that when an individual kills themselves, their soul falls into the seventh circle and roots itself, from there growing into a “wild thicket” (100).
But this is not the...

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Examination and Film Comparisons of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno
Referred to as a comedy by Dante Alighieri himself and named by later ages for recognition of both its subject matter and achievements, The Divine Comedy, Dante’s epic poem is one of the incontestable great works of world literature. It includes a wide range of distinct literary elements; it celebrates the central doctrines of medieval Christianity with great enthusiasm while still remaining sympathetic to the human heart. It is one of the most deeply serious works in world literature, it’s main concern is the relation of the creator to his creatures and the ultimate destiny of the human soul; and yet it has room for not just grim irony but scenes of generous good humor and vulgarity. There have been many adaptations throughout the ages to Dante’s work, whether through literature or film, different perspectives provide for different accounts of Dante’s original masterpiece. In the contents of this paper we will examine and analyze the original poem by the author then compare and contrast the differences and similarities of the film versions to the original work of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.
In the original work by Dante, the Inferno begins on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300. Wandering through a dark forest, Dante has lost his way and fearfully searches for a way out, he sees the sun shining down on the mountain above him but when he attempts to climb...